Pegged breakaway rabbit snare

The design of a breakaway snare has been around for hundreds of years, used by native peoples of many countries to snare an animal or bird for the purposes of keeping the target animal alive and incorporated into a rabbit snare by Glenn S Waters in the 1980's initially to protect woodland deer from becoming leg snared.

When an animal such as a deer (or sheep, horse, cow, etc) gets a leg caught in a brass rabbit snare, it is easy enough for such a large animal to break free, however, in doing so the animal is left with a brass wire noose tightly embedded around its foot, this leads to necrosis (lack of blood supply to the region causing the flesh to die) and the loss of a foot or lower part of a limb.

The first breakaway link designed by Glenn was of copper wire, which in a lot of cases proved to be very successful, however, further trials showed that the copper wire being used had no consistency in its breaking strength, causing the loss of several rabbits from snares. TrapWorks own trials showed that the breaking strain varied enormously from 6lb to over 25lb. Several variations on the original design were trialed using the same material, but this again was inconsistent - a new material had to be found.

Glenn decided to try a 1.6mm soft galvanised wire, trials by myself and many others have shown that this material is far more consistent in its strength, and can easily be disguised by boiling in tea to darken the 'S' link.

So far no rabbits have escaped from these snares although a half grown hare was shown to have made a small impact on the 'S' link. These snares are not foolproof and come with no guarantee that a non target species can break free, having said that, a large animal such as a dog will easily open the 'S' link and a deer or other large animal can pull free without snapping the brass wire thereby completely eliminating necrosis of the limbs.

One of the most important aspects of Glenns design is the incorporation of a deer stop, initially set at five inches from the eyelet (now six inches). Using a deer stop means that the snare noose does not close fully and allows animals which step into a snare to pull out without activating the breakaway. Now animals such as deer, foxes, badgers, etc which accidentally step into a rabbit snare can withdraw their foot with no ill effects to themselves or the snare.

Setting the deer stop at six inches has also increased animal welfare in other ways. Rabbits caught on open ground with nothing to tangle themselves in will not only be alive and simply restrained by the snare, but will also show no physical effects on the body. Animals caught in this way after a brief struggle will happily continue to feed and are able to hide themselves as best they can from predators.

Please note: When using snares as restraining devices the snares must be checked at least twice a day, in the late spring and summer months three times a day. The reason being that using the old style snare most animals would be dead upon your arrival, now however, these animals should be alive and to let them bake in the summer sun without shade or shelter constitutes cruelty. If you cannot get out to check your snares regularly please do not set them.

Please note that the law in Scotland now prohibits the use of any snares which do not have a deer stop affixed to them.